Taken together, the two propositions show that sociol - ogy is the last discipline to reach the positive or scien - tific stage; and Comte's specific historical analysis indi - cated that this development, which would constitute the climax of the evolution of the human mind, was imminent, biology having recently reached the positive stage.

None or almost none of Comte's specific notions about the past have withstood critical scrutiny, but his conception on the one hand of sociol - ogy as a unifying and normative discipline, and his insistent emphasis on the other hand on the history of science and of scientific thought, have been enor - mously fruitful well into the twentieth century.

The con - version of the last and highest of the sciences, sociol - ogy, into a positive discipline did not yet overcome the separateness of the six sciences and therefore could not yet yield the synthesis of all the positive sciences which would establish positivism as a total system, as

Although Marx never employed the term “sociol - ogy” (possibly because he held Comte's work in low esteem), it has become customary to treat the approach briefly sketched out in the 1859 Preface, and exten - sively developed in Capital (1867), as a sociological doctrine analogous to that of Comte.